I saw his post on this last night, and while these background stories are nice and all, I wish he would instead finish the series. That's what everyone wants. The thing that makes me most mad about this is that after him telling everybody that the new Dunk & Egg would be next, we now have no idea when it's coming out.

I prefer him to take his time and write what he wants instead of "factory writing" a bunch of books that are garbage.

watching season 1 where Ned and Cersei are talking in the courtyard when he warned her to take the kids and leave cause Robert would hunt her down. Would've been sweet to see that stuff happen, but she told him what happens when you play.

quote:Meh. He's had plenty of time to write and when we're talking YEARS between books the whole "factory writing" thing doesn't exactly take.

You can say that, but my perfect example of this would be Stephen King's Dark Tower series. He wrote the first 4 books over a 15 year period and they were all excellent. He then had a brush with death and churned out the last three books over 3 years, and they were all mostly garbage.

Sometimes an author needs a break to write something else to keep him from getting stagnant on his main series. I've been reading this series since 1996 when it came out, so I'm as pissed about the delays as anyone, but I'd rather he take his time and put out a good product rather than rush out some garbage.

That being said, Martin does seem to take slacking to extremes. Though he is self admittedly terrible at deadlines.

quote:What is your reasoning? Tommen is more interested in his kittens at this point than playing the game.

Irrelevant. Tommen must die, and it will be tragic for all parties that this must happen. I'm betting Cersei screws over the Tyrells as much as possible and they'll do an under-the-table deal with Aegon, that if he'll marry Margeary, they'll give him the Iron Throne. Loras, who has Tommen's love and trust, will sneak into the Red Keep, and poison him peacefully. During all this, the Tyrells will open the gates for Aegon's army. Cersei will escape by the skin of her teeth and retreat to Casterly Rock. Honestly I'd almost be surprised if Lora's didn't become a POV character in the last two books.

quote:I agree Tommen will die. Poisoning isn't a Loras way though. That is a woman's method.

You could make Loras character deeper by choosing to give him a painless death with a woman's weapon over a painful one the sword would bring. Thinking it through, I'm thinking Margaery may poison him, and then with the assistance of Varys retreat into the bowls of the Red Keep.